Google’s web indexing architecture targeted by patent lawsuit

Google has been sued by both Northeastern University and Jarg Corp. for …

Google is being sued by both Jarg Corp. (a privately funded search technology developer) and Northeastern University, parties to a patent which they claim describes the database technology Google uses to quickly index web information.

The Boston Globereports that the patent in question (No. 5,694,593, dated Dec 2, 1997) was granted to Northeastern in 1997 and exclusively licensed to the aforementioned Jarg Corp. It's not clear when Google began allegedly infringing on the '593 patent. The company incorporated in 1998, but Jarg co-founders Michael Belanger and Kenneth Baclawski weren't aware of any potential infringement until approximately 2.5 years ago, when the two men were contacted by a Boston law firm that wishes to remain anonymous for obvious reasons.

Members of the law firm described a Google presentation on search technology they had recently been invited to view which appeared to violate the Northeastern/Jarg patent. The abstract for the '593 patent describes the following:

A distributed computer database system including a front end computer and a plurality of computer nodes interconnected by a network into a search engine. A query from a user is transmitted to the front end computer which forwards the query to one of the computer nodes, termed the home node, of the search engine. The home node fragments the query and hashes the fragments of query to create an index by which the hashed query fragments are transmitted to one or more nodes on the network. Each node on the network which receives a hashed fragment uses the fragment of the query to perform a search on its respective database. The results of the searches of the local databases are then gathered by the home node.

According to the suit, this approach to fragmented queries is used by Google to return the quickest and most relevant results possible. Northeastern and Jarg filed the suit against Google this past Tuesday in Marshall, Texas, but the case isn't expected to go to trial for at least two years. Given how tight-lipped Google is about its search technology, it's impossible to evaluate the merits of the case. Google, for its part, states that it has investigated the claims brought by Jarg and Northeastern and considers them to be without merit.

All those years ago

What have Northeastern and Jarg been doing these past 2.5 years when they were aware of the potential infringement? According to the Jarg founders, they spent the time searching for a lawyer who would agree to take the patent infringement case on a contingency basis. This suggests some hesitance to get into a legal battle with Google, at least one which could become a war of financial attrition. Going on a contingency basis protects Northeastern and Jarg in the case of a long trial, but it does not necessarily mean that they have no case.

Prima facie, the Northeastern/Jarg claim seems to be much more substantial than the cases typically filed by the species patentus trollus and hisfriend, frivolous lawsuit. The company's meteoric rise to power over the past few years has seen a corresponding increase in the number of legal actions filed against (or filed by) Google. In addition to dealing with conspiracy theorists and Belgian newspapers stuck in the 19th century, Google has indeed been targeted by patent trolls with vague claims and a ridiculously wide "infringement" net.

For his part, Jarg co-founder Belanger has stated he has no interest in crippling Google, and would simply ask the company to pay a "normal royalty." One person's definition of "normal" will differ from the next, and given Google's size and the importance of the technology involved (it's really at the core of Google's business), we suspect that there's nothing normal about it.